Devils (both of them) sink Sailors by one

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The Eagle Valley senior wasn't whom the last play was designed for, but there Hart found himself with the ball and precious seconds ticking off the clock.

Hart took three dribbles, lasered a shot from near the elbow of the free throw line that kissed the glass and fell in as time expired, giving the Eagle Valley boys basketball team a 37-36 win against Steamboat.

"My eyes were closed I swear," Hart said. "I mean I was was shocked."

Not as shocked as a Steamboat team that controlled the game for nearly three quarters to only see a 12 point lead evaporate.

The Sailors were up 33-21 with 37 seconds left in the third quarter. Eagle Valley started to chip away and held Steamboat scoreless for 5:45 to eventually take a 35-33 lead with 4:09 left in the fourth quarter.

"It's not a byproduct of the last shot - it's a byproduct of how you played for 32 minutes," Steamboat coach Luke DeWolfe said. "The looks we got were good looks. Right now we have a tendency to shoot well in the first half and not in the second."

Steamboat certainly played better in the first half, but Eagle Valley was able to speed the game up in the second half to make the Sailors uncomfortable.

A prime example was late in the third quarter. After Steamboat took its largest lead of the night at 33-21, it looked like Eagle Valley was on the ropes.

But the Devils scored five points in the last 19 seconds of the quarter, and the first nine of the fourth, to change the complexion of the game.

I told the guys they had to have a sense of urgency," Devils coach Jim Bair said. "Playing in a game like that it's like being down 30. We were fortunate enough tonight to win, but they understood it was important to be urgent in the third quarter and not just the last couple of minutes."

Steamboat falls to 6-5 overall and 2-4 in the Western Slope League. Eagle Valley is 9-2 and 5-1.

Steamboat girls falter in late comeback

It was everything you'd expect from a Western Slope League girls basketball game.

Team A jumped out to a big lead, gave it up, fell behind, came back, took the lead and eventually lost.

Team A, as it has seem to gone this year, was Steamboat.

Eagle Valley withstood a late charge in picking up a 41-40 win Friday and staying in the thick of things in the Western Slope League.

The Devils, with a limited bench because several girls at the Presidential Inauguration on Monday, improved to 8-3 overall and 5-1 in the Western Slope League. The team remains a game behind Delta in the standings. Steamboat is 5-6 overall and 1-5 in the league.

For Steamboat it was what could have been.

The team was up 17-13 after a quarter, before struggling in the second and falling behind 31-22.

Eagle Valley was keyed by Mariel Gutierrez's 14 points in the second quarter.